Religious Experience Flashcards
How can you briefly define a religious experience?
‘an encounter with God’
A conversion experience
The feeling that there is something inside you wanting to change your life and to believe in God. It is sometimes called a regenerative experience because it gives a feeling of being born again
Give an example of a conversion experience
Paul on the road to Demascus
A charismatic experience
An experience where the Holy Spirit descends upon you, for example, speaking in tongues, prophecy or healing
Give an example of a charismatic experience
Pentecost
A numinous experience
A feeling of great wonder, where you feel that there is something greater than yourself, which you can only call God
Give an example of a numinous experience
Awe and Wonder
A mystical experience
An experience of the divine, which is difficult to describe, for example, hearing God’s voice or seeing a vision
Give an example of a mystcial experience
Joan of Arc
Prayer
All religious believers think that they can make contact with God through prayer. Prayers can be formal, e.g. for a Christian in Eucharist in the Lord’s prayer. Prayers can also be informal where a believer makes their own prayer to God in their own private place
Give an example of a prayer
The Our Father Prayer
A near-death experience
An experience of God when in the process of dying or having died, but then being resuscitated
Give an example of a near-death experience
Someone who’s had surgery and heart stops and they claim to see a light
How might Religious Experience lead to people believing or not believing in God?
Provides proof of God’s existence (if you see something)
Provides proof that God doesn’t exist (if you don’t something)
